FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Coming hot off a sweep of New Mexico Thursday night, the Colorado State volleyball team never slowed down, beating the TCU Horned Frogs in straight sets (25-14, 25-17, 25-15) Saturday afternoon at Moby Arena.

With the win, the Rams (13-4, 6-1 MW) improve to 6-1 at the midpoint of the conference season, padding their lead in the MW standings.

“I am extremely proud of the way this team played today,” Head Coach Tom Hilbert said. “We played very efficiently and did the things we needed to do to take care of business. We looked very, very good today.”

The Rams began the match by holding TCU (17-4, 4-3 MW) to a .069 hitting percentage in Set 1, while controlling the offense with a hitting percentage of .423 on 14 kills. With the help of a Brieon Paige block and kill, the Rams were able to keep the momentum going into Set 2. CSU finished the set with a hitting percentage of .333, adding on 16 more kills. Redshirt freshman Kelsey Snider tallied three of her four kills to help push the Rams ahead of the Horned Frogs 2-0 heading into the locker room.

After the short break, Paige and Snider didn’t back off, tallying Colorado State’s first two kills of the third set. TCU fought back early, but couldn’t handle the pressure of CSU’s defense and relentless offense. Junior middle blocker Megan Plourde added two blocks and three kills to spring the Rams’ lead to 15-6, and TCU was unable to gain traction, as CSU took Set 3, 25-15.

Hilbert was very pleased with how his team responded to a tough TCU team.

“Thursday and today were our best serving games so far,” Hilbert said. “It’s not necessarily measured by service aces, but rather the lack of errors and toughness. The mark this team is making is that when they play well, and play well a lot, they are not giving a lot of points away. TCU is not a bad team at all, but we made them look that way because of how well we performed.”

“We kind of come out with a little chip on our shoulders every time we play them,” Steffan said. “It’s important for us to beat them the way we did here.”

Steffan came out tough, notching a match-high 15 kills on .423 hitting, while Paige finished the night with nine kills on .467 hitting. As a team, CSU hit. 340, with five players recording at least five kills.

The Rams continue conference play on the road against Boise State on Thursday at 7 p.m. MT.